Be Prepared on Home Fire Drill Day!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m sure you remember – if you were lucky, on a school day, you could miss out on your least favorite class due to a fire drill. Fire drills are a fact of life for our kids at school, and many of our employers have fire drills. But do you have fire drills at home? I know we haven’t done that here – even though our home is where most fires occur. 9 in 10 structure fires actually occur in the home (National Fire ProtectionAssociation), and more than 8 in 10 fire–related deaths result from home fires (SafeKids Worldwide).So our habit of not having home fire drills is changing right now! Saturday, October 15, is Home Fire Drill Day!

Nationwide Make Safe Happen, with the members of the Make Safe Happen Advisory Council, are launching this day to help ensure that American families and children know escape plans and are prepared in the event of a home fire, which are more common during the fall and winter.

A home fire happens every 86 seconds, yet half of parents say their kids wouldn’t know what to do if their smoke alarm went off. Here are a few basics to help you get started with your kids!

Step 1. Know where to go. Pick a safety spot that’s near your home and a safe distance away. Explain to your kids that when the smoke alarm beeps, they need to get out of the house quickly and meet at that safety spot. Need help making an escape plan…watch this video to get you started and head to HomeFireDrillDay.com for more help!

Step 2. Check your smoke alarms. Test your smoke alarms with your kids so they know the sound. Make sure there’s a smoke alarm on every level of your home, and one in each bedroom. Here’s a few more tips for moms and dads on smoke alarms…

Step 3. Do the drill. Have kids head to their bedrooms and wait for the drill to begin. If you have kids under 6, an adult should help. Put one adult in charge of sounding the smoke alarm and running the drill. Next, sound the smoke alarm, start the timer and have everyone get to the safety spot. Once everyone arrives, stop the timer. If you all made it in under two minutes,you each get an imaginary gold medal. If you didn’t make it, keep trying! In a real fire, call 911!

Once you’ve practiced, head to HomeFireDrillDay.com to get some AWESOME fire drill games that you can play with your kids!

I will be creating a fire escape plan with my girls this Home Fire Drill Day. What do you do or what will you do to help prepare your family for a home fire?